BlackBerry Bold on Sprint?

By Thomas on Jan 03, 2009 with Comments

Filed Under: 9000 Bold • Sprint

sprint bold1 BlackBerry Bold on Sprint?

So, Engadget picked up a new rumor that was bound to come out in the CDMA world sooner or later.  With Verizon still fresh on the Storm, they really have no room this quarter for a brand new device especially since the Storm was so delayed.  Sprint on the other hand just launched the 8350i iDEN, but we won’t count that because that is for a very specific market.  So it seems they would need a new BlackBerry for 2009 and it’s gotta be the Bold.  This CDMA version of the BlackBerry Bold will come with the model number 9030 just like all CDMA BlackBerries.  The Bold is the replacement for the timeless 8800 series, so it should be a World Edition and should be a decent replacement an awesome replacement.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the 8800 series, gorgeous phone, brilliant keyboard, nice size (I like big phones, harder to lose and easier to type on), but it is no Bold.  The issue, however, with the Bold is that it does have a pretty sweet camera.  Yeah and what’s wrong with that you may ask.  Well the 8800 series devices were made to be the business phone, you know the phone that lawyers and business people are all walking around with?  Well in the case of the lawyers, they cannot have any kind of camera in the court room.  Including camera phones, so either Sprint will have to have options on the camera, the laywers are out of luck, or they make a CDMA cameraless Bold.  I guess we will just have to wait and see.  Oh yeah, and maybe Sprint will get this one out on time.

via Engadget


Tags: • • • •

About the Author:

  • It is nothing super surprising. Not that kind of news, but people need their updates you know? I agree with the camera thing, but with RIM working hard at expanding their consumer base to the anybody customer and not just the business users I don't see them making separate models anytime soon, or at least offering them to everyone (although I hope they do).

    As far as the keyboards go, I love the 8800 series keyboards and the Bold keyboards. They just are so nice and fast, they keys are also the perfect size. One thing I hate about the 8800 series though is how loud the clicking of the keys is. The Bold is pretty silent so that is what makes it perfect for me. The 8900 keyboard is very similar to the current Curve, so I think you will enjoy it. The biggest change that I like is how it does not have the big shift key anymore; it is just like the 8800 and Bold keyboard with the alt and shift keys directly diagonal from each other. I can get use to either way, but I prefer it this way. To each their own ;).
  • DavidB
    I don't know why Engadget thinks this is news. There have been reports of a CDMA Bold type device coming feb/mar 09 timeframe for a long time now. And I highly doubt Sprint (who loses what, a million or so customers a month) is going to get a CDMA device that Verizon/Alltel doesn't get too. I can see RiM throwing Sprint a bone and they get it maybe a month before Verizon, but no more than that.

    This camera issue is gonna be huge. There are far too many of us that can't go where our job requires with a camera. Whether that's a courtroom, manufacturing plant, weapons production, or hell even just our office, RIM needs to offer alternative models of each 'berry sans camera, say a xxx5 model number means no camera. A lot of people don't understand how important this is, so go about your daily life and every time you go somewhere leave your blackberry in your car. You will soon feel what it means to be without and you'll understand why so many feel RIM needs to put out "no camera" models.

    So really Thomas, you LIKE the 8830 keyboard? Man, I hate it. 8330 and 8703 all have far better keyboard to my touch. The old 7xxx series had better keyboard than 8830! And I've played with a 9000 Bold and not a fan of its keyboard either, 8330 is still better I think. Can't wait to feel the keyboard on the 89xx but from what I've heard it takes the 83xx keyboard and doesn't mess up the best qwerty keyboard RIM has.

    You have to wonder what will differentiate a 9030 Bold from a 8930 Curve on Sprint/Verizon? Hard to imagine either accepting a EVDO Rev 0 device as the 8930 Curve (Apex) has been rumored to be. On GSM it makes sense to differentiate on 3G but it doesn't on EVDO. Just from a systems management and efficiency perspective I would think all the CDMA carriers would like to get as many devices on Rev A as soon as possible.
blog comments powered by Disqus